Carlos Blanco, a venezuelan in Chelsea

Last week I had to give a talk about rapport in business, if I have to give one example of rapport in business I will give Carlos Blanco and I, Carlos and his clients, Carlos and his staffs, Carlos and wines. To survive in London you need friends, and I am very lucky to have Carlos as my friend and to introduce him to you.

Visual tour for Blanco & Gomez Wine Merchants
When I first arrived in London, his brand new shop was just opened for few weeks and he was looking for a business developer. As it was my previous job for 10 years and I wanted to be introduced to the wine world, we signed an agreement. London is a fantastic city, full of life and I love its heart beating rhythm but maybe you cannot imagine how hard it can be sometimes. I often describe it as a jungle, you live or you die, and among all the good things happening you can find yourself in a very hard situation. In my Londoner’s journey Carlos has been one of the most important “rencontres” I have made. He has not only introduced me to London way of life, but also to the new world wines. He is a traveller, he is a hard worker and wants everything to be perfect as for his friends or his clients. Ask him about any places to be in London, Hong-Kong, Italy, even France he will guide you with a lot of details and tips. I did my first steps in business with his shop Blanco & Gomez Wine merchants, 410 King’s road, Chelsea, SW10 0LJ London. We have been running food & wine tastings in the italian restaurant next door for more than 150 people during 6 months, it was crazy. This experience allowed me to set up my company.

1/ How did you end up into the wine world?

One of my first job when I arrived to London 14 years ago, was a part-time sales assistant in a wine shop in the city. Since then the passion started to grow until I decided with my business partner to take the plunge and open our own shop 6 years ago.

2/ What is your vision of the old world wine versus new world?

Nowadays with the Globalisation, old world wines will struggle to compete with the new world in term of costs. Thank to the technologies and other factors you could find stunning wines from both, and new world’s wines will be most of the times more approachable for people who live under a budget.3/ You are from Venezuela, how do you perceive the future of South american wine production?

The Kings of the Cono Sur are The wines from Chile & Argentinia. In the last 20 years they being having a great welcoming all over the world, hence the are importing more and more of their production, specially the Argentinian wines, which back in the days were consumed most of them whithin the Gaucho’s country. If it’s true that Uruguay, Brazil and even Peru makes wines, they are still in their infancy and the few that are out there which are decent, are not competitive on price. But short answer is that the market is growing with and exponential potential, that’s why you see every day more and more French producers growing wine down there. What a better example than the Rothschild family itself…4/ Tell us about Londoners, or maybe Chelsea’s Londoners’ rapport with wine?

Londoner’s and British in General tend to go for New World’s wines nowadays, specially from countries from the Commonwealth, such as Australia and New Zealand and this will be the future of the wine industry in my opinion, due to European wine makers can not compete with cost of making the wines. A plot of land with stunning terroir in South America or even Australia will cost a fraction of a plot of land in Champagne or Bordeaux, not to mention the labour.
Chelsea’s customers do not reflect the British market as they are very conservative and usually go for the big appellation names from across Europe, but still are the open mind to taste new wines, so when I introduce them to high-end wines from Argentina or Chile, they just can’t believe that wine was actually made down there and was so reasonable price.

5/Your company has started to trade with Asia, what is your perception of the future wine market there? how it will influence the UK market?

The Asian market is the biggest potential in the wine industry, along with India, Russia and Brazil. Asian consumer are getting more and more mature when it comes to the wine consumption. Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore are the most mature so far and eventually, not to say now, a lot of wine makers with a lot of reputation from Europe rely on them as a clients, specially from Bordeaux, but it just a matter of time for the rest of the big appellations across Europe.
The side effect in the UK and in the world in general is that this wines will become more and more expensive. You could see how in the last ten years prices of Gran Marquess Champagne and First to Fifth growers have increase on price in a ridiculous way, so they would become at some point completely the pleasure of a few…

6/ What are your clients looking for when they enter your shop?

French Bordeaux or White Burgundies

Italians Super Tuscan or Gavi di Gavi

Ribera del Duero or Priorat

Champagne

As mentioned before, very conservative 🙂7/ Thanks giving, Xmas are coming could you give us your selection for our 2015 celebrations menus?